Ice cube maker



Nov. 1,'1955 R. s. DENzER 2,722,l10

ICE CUBE MAKER Filed May 6. 1953 INVENTOR. ROMEO 5. DENzER BM a W ICE CUBE MAKER Romeo S. Denzer, La Crosse, Wis.

Application May 6, 1953, Serial No. 353,291

Claims. (Cl. 62-107) This invention relates to apparatus for automatically making ice cubes. More specifically, it relates to an ice cube maker which freezes a tray of cubes, releases said cubes for discharge to a storage bin and automatically repeats the freezing and releasing cycles.

It is an object of this invention to provide apparatus for freezing ice cubes in inverted cups and for periodically applying heat to release said cubcs for movement by gravity to a storage bin.

It is another object of this invention to release the ice cubes by conducting hot refrigerant gas to the evaporator and by causing make up water to flow over the evaporator before falling into the reservoir. The heat from the make up water contributes to the release of the frozen cubes and at the same time the make up water is precooled so that it does not substantially increase the temperature of the water in the reservoir.

It is another object of this invention to provide a main reservoir and a secondary reservoir for maintaining a substantially constant level in the main reservoir.

Other objects and advantages of the invention Will appear as the specification proceeds to describe the invention with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a cross-sectional view, partly diagrammatic, showing the interior construction of my improved ice cube maker;

Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken on line 2-2 of Pig. 1.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged plan view of a spray disc.

Fig. 4 is an end view of the spray disc.

Referring now to the drawings the cabinet is designated generally by numeral and is divided by partition 12 'into a freezer space 14 and an equipment space 16. The

walls of the cabinet 10 are insulated to reduce the transmission of heat therethrough.

An evaporator 18 has a plurality of inverted cups 20. Water is sprayed into the cups 20 by rotating discs 22 which are mounted on shaft 24. A motor 26 is mounted on partition 12 and drives pulley 28. A pulley 30 is mounted on shaft 24 and a belt 32 engages pulleys 28 and 30 to transmit the driving force from motor 26 to shaft 24. Discs 22 extend below the level of water in a reservoir 34. An overflow pipe 36 prevents the water in tank 34 from rising beyond a predetermined point. A partition 38 provides an auxiliary reservoir 40 which receives spray water at the start of a freezing cycle and feeds said water to the main reservoir 34 as freezing progresses. Partition 38 has an opening 42 which permits water to fiow from auxiliary reservoir 40 to reservoir 34 at a predetermined rate. The opening 42 is sized slightly larger than required to supply the water at the exact rate at which it is frozen because if the fiow to the main reservoir is greater than necessary the level in the main reservoir will rise causing more water to be sprayed back into the auxiliary reservoir 40.

Discs 22 have vanes 44 extending normal to the planes of the discs. Vanes 44 are punched from the material of the discs and alternate vanes extend from opposite sides of the discs. When the water level in the main reservoir 34 tends to rise to the point where the vanes 44 become submerged, the vanes 44 increase the amount of water thrown by the discs and this water collects' in the auxiliary reservoir 40 and the level of water in the main reservoir 34 is thus maintained just below the path of the vanes. The vanes 44 also have the function of reatomizing water which falls from the cups 20.

Bafles 46 and 48 prevent spray water from entering cube storage space 50. A plurality of bars 52 extend from the front side 54 of tank 34 to the rear wall of the cabinet 10 and are inclined downwardly toward the storage space 50 so that ice cubes will slide on the bars 52 and drop into storage space 50.

A refrigeration compressor 56 is mounted in the equipment space 16 and has a discharge pipe 58 for conducting refrigerant to a condenser 60 which is cooled by air moved by a fan 62 driven by a motor 64. Pipe 66 conducts refrigerant from condenser 60 to a capillary tube 68, and pipe 70 conducts refrigerant from capillary tube 68 to evaporator 18. The cups 20 extend into a chamber 72 which conducts the refrigerant into intimate contact with all of the cups 20 of the evaporator 18 and a pipe 74 conducts the refrigerant from chamber 72 to the compressor 56.

A pipe 76 conducts refrigerant from pipe 58 to a solenoid valve 78 and a pipe 80 connects solenoid valve 78 to pipe 70. When the solenoid valve 78 is opened hot gaseous refrigerant from pipe 58 bypasses condenser 60 and capillary tube 68 and flows directly as a gas through pipe 70 to evaporator 18 to heat the evaporator and release the cubes as will be more fully described.

Water is supplied from any source 82 and flow is controlled by a solenoid valve 84. A pipe 86 conducts the water from solenoid valve 84 to a spray tree 88 from which the water flows and runs down over the top of the evaporator 18 finally dropping into the reservoir 34. v

The operation of the cube maker will now be described. When the freezing of cubes is taking place, refrigerant fiows through condenser 60, pipe 66, capillary tube 68, pipe 70 to evaporator 18. Refrigerant gas fiows from evaporator 18 through pipe 74 to compressor 56. During the freezing cycle, rotating discs 22 supply a fine spray of water to the cups 20. A timer or a thermostat on the evaporator not shown, will signal the completion of a freezing cycle and energize solenoid valves 78 and 84 to open these valves. When valve 78 is opened, hot refrigerant gas is conducted directly to the evaporator, and the cups 20 are heated by the gas to release the cubes. When valve 84 is open, water fiows from spray tree 88 and over the top surface of evaporator 18 before dropping into reservoir 34. This water gives up some of its heat to the evaporator to release the cubes, and the water is precooled before entering the reservoir 34. The timer or thermostat closes valve 84 after a predetermined length of time which is sufiicient to add enough water to make up for that frozen and to permit some water to be discharged through overflow pipe 36. The timer or thermostat also closes solenoid valve 78 after a predetermined length of time sufficient for all the cubes to be released from the cups 20.

When the water valve 84 is open the level of water in tank 34 rises and discs 22 spray a larger volume of water with the result that auxiliary reservoir 40 is filled. As water from reservoir 34 is frozen to the cups 20 the level of water in reservoir 34 is maintained by the fiow of water from auxiliary reservoir 40 through orifice 42, and the spray from discs 22 is maintained Constant throughout the freezing cycle.

It should be understood that although I prefer to use a timer to nitiate the freezing and releasing cycles, other means such as pressure switches or thermostats can be used as is well known to those skilled in the art.

Although I have described specifically the preferred embodiment of my invention, various changes are possible without departing from the scope of the invention, and I desire to be limited only by the claims.

I claim:

l. An ice cube maker comprising a plurality of inverted freezing cups, a main reservoir for liquid to be frozen, an auxiliary reservoir for said liquid, rotatably driven discs in said main reservoir and extending downwardly into the liquid in said main reservoir to spray said liquid into said freezing cups and into said auxiliary reservoir, and a metered orifice for conducting said liquid from said auxiliary reservoir to said main reservoir at a predetermined rate whereby the level of liquid in the main reservoir is maintained substantially constant.

2. An ice cube maker comprising a plurality of iuverted freezing cups, a main liquid reservoir, an auxiliary liquid reservoir, a plurality of rotatable discs extending into the liquid in said main liquid reservoir, means for rotating said discs to spray liquid into said cups and into said auxiliary reservoir, a source of liquid supply, valve means for admitting liquid intermittently, and a metered orifice for conducting liquid from said auxiliary reservoir to said main reservoir at a predetermined rate.

3. An ice cube maker comprising a plurality of inverted freezing cups, a main liquid reservoir, an auxiliary liquid reservoir, a plurality of rotatable discs extending into the liquid in said main reservoir, to spray liquid into said inverted freezing cups, said discs having vanes extending from the plane of the discs and at an angle thereto, said vanes being adjacent the periphery of the discs but spaced inwardly from the periphery whereby the vanes control the level of the liquid in the main reservoir by iucreasing the volume of water raised by the discs whenever the level rises to the path of the vanes, said auxiliary reservoir being in the path of at least some of the liquid raised by the discs, and an orifice between said auxiliary reservoir and said main reservoir to conduct liquid from said auxiliary reservoir to said main reservoir at a predetermined rate.

4. An ice cube maker comprising a plurality of inverted freezing cups, a liquid reservoir below said cups, a plurality of substantially parallel rotatable discs extending into the liquid in said reservoir, means for rotating said discs to spray liquid into said freezing cups and vanes on said discs extending at an angle to the planes of the discs to intercept water falling from said cups and to spray said falling water into said cups.

5. A method of producing ice cubes comprising spraying water into freezing cups from a main reservoir of water, passing a quantity of water in contact with said freezing cups to raise the temperature of said cups for releasing the cubes and for cooling said water, collecting said Water in the main reservoir, and maintaining the level of said water in the main reservoir substantially Constant by feeding Water to an auxiliary reservoir when the level of water in the main reservoir tends to rise, and feeding water from said auxiliary reservoir to said main reservoir at a predetermined rate.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,335,598 Meldahl Nov. 30, 1943 2, 340,721 Whitney Feb. 1, 1944 2,352,127 Sheldon June 20, 1944 2,407,058 Clum Sept. 3, 1946 2,569,113 Munshower Sept. 25, 1951 2,575,892 Roberts Nov. 20, 1951 2,586,588 Weseman Feb. 19, 1952 2,626,135 Serner Jan. 20, 1953 2,640,678 Andresen June 2, 1953 2,656,686 Bayston Oct. 27, 1953 2,674,858 Magnusou Apr. 13, 1954 

